Midland school board members discuss and vote on setting August 8 as a public meeting to discuss a proposed budget and tax rate increase during the board meeting Monday 07-25-16. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Midland school board members discuss and vote on setting August 8 as a public meeting to discuss a proposed budget and tax rate increase during the board meeting Monday 07-25-16. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Midland school board members discuss and vote on setting August 8 as a public meeting to discuss a proposed budget and tax rate increase during the board meeting Monday 07-25-16. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Midland school board members discuss and vote on setting August 8 as a public meeting to discuss a proposed budget and tax rate increase during the board meeting Monday 07-25-16. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

A candidate forum is planned for Oct. 20 for those running for Midland ISD school board.

The League of Women Voters and Negro Business and Professional Women will hold the forum at 7 p.m. at Midland College.

If this community is serious about education reform, those holding the forum would need to reserve Chap Center. If the tax ratification election is any indication, a mid-size meeting room will provide more than enough space.

Our community got another shot of bad news this week as the school board approved asking the Texas Education Agency for 72 class-size waivers. School district leaders said it is likely our elementary schools will need only 52 when new teachers begin and portables are delivered. Still, those 52 do not represent the kind of education that members of our community should expect of its school district.

The TEA calls for a maximum ratio of 22 students for every teacher in kindergarten through fourth grade. There will be 52 cases at 13 elementary schools in which the ratio will be higher -- as much as 25 to 1 in some second-, third- and fourth-grade classrooms. Our community is failing our youngest students when they need their teachers’ attention the most.

We hope that those who attend this forum come with questions in hand. Ask those candidates how they expect to reverse this trend. Odessa did it, going from 168 waiver requests in 2014 to 30 this year.

We hope concerned residents also ask candidates how they anticipate connecting with their constituents in a way that the current board isn’t doing. Let us be clear: Those running for school board, your participation shouldn’t be seen as a part-time venture. That is how our community got into the predicament we find ourselves in. While it is convenient to blame Austin or the small percentage that stepped forward to block a needed infusion of funds to accelerate reform, this community is disconnected from its leadership, which had no business operating on cruise control for the better part of a decade.

The result was performance issues, a roller coaster of waiver requests and the inability of a district to get its employees, its students’ parents and others concerned about education to cast ballots when the district needed it the most.

We likely will address the upcoming candidate forum in more detail at a later date. But it is never too early to start preparing. The results of the last week made that abundantly clear.

MISD waivers

2016: 72 plus (will likely need 52)

2015: 41

2014: 18

2013: 19

2012: 109

2011: 75

Waiver requests by campus

Fasken: 19 (will likely need two)

Bowie: 14

Greathouse: seven

Scharbauer: six

Fannin 4, Parker 4 (will likely need one)

Bush, Henderson, Jones, Washington, Yarbrough: three each

Santa Rita: two

Emerson: one

Source: MISD

Waiver requests by grades

Kindergarten: 10 (will likely need six)

First grade: 19 (will likely need 14)

Second grade: 11

Third grade: 21 (will likely need 17)

Fourth grade: 11 (will likely need seven)

Note: Parker is filing for four (one in first grade and three in second). It wasn’t indicated which waivers might not be needed.